Runners gored in crowded bull run
At least three people were gored and several others sustained scrapes and cuts today as crowds of enthusiasts in the medieval city of Pamplona ran alongside six fighting bulls in the third bull run of the annual San Fermin festival.
“So far we have news of three persons gored, one in the mouth and two others in leg muscles and buttocks but the figure might increase as more information comes in,” a spokesman for the festival said.
The run took almost exactly three minutes, a relatively quick time, from a corral on the outskirts where the bulls are herded the night prior to the run to the bull ring in the centre of the city.
Most of the injuries came when bulls and runners slipped and fell as they charged along the near half-mile route.
The runs, televised nationally, are held at 8am daily between July 7 and 14.
The festival in the northern town, renowned for its all-night street parties, dates back to the late 16th century. It gained worldwide fame in Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises.
Pamplona normally has a population of some 200,000 but was expected to host about two million people during this weekend, authorities said.
